And Then There Was Fire

As you know, the new pad came complete with a fireplace:

This is a real fireplace, no gas or electric. Real wood. Real fire. So B has been dying to light one up since we got in and after we had the chimney guy inspect it to make sure we would not die or anything. Having obtained wood from his folks, he was off:

The cats were curious as to what he was doing:

B was quite proud of his firemaking skills and stopped to survey his work:

Look at that fire:

Such a beautiful and WARM thing. It was great.  You know who else enjoyed the fire? Chester. He is one strange cat. Between his love of appliances and his newfound love of fire, he is quite the character.

In fact, Chester decided to get in on the action when B was trying to start the fire:

How cute are those two with their heads peeking in the fire?  You know what is not cute? When your very curious cat decides to walk straight into the fire.  I told B that Chester was a bit TOO curious and that we needed to close those lovely brass gates.  B insisted that Chester's survival instincts would kick on. Um, not so much.  Chester just waltzed straight in there and I was able to pull him out before his whiskers caught fire.  We quickly closed the gates and lamented on Chester's total lack of survival skills. He was a street cat for crying out loud.

After that a roaring fire was enjoyed by all. Mostly me, really. The cats bored of it and B went on to his next project.*

I enjoyed it though.  So warm.

*If you have been paying attention, you are probably wondering why B is often photographed in the same outfit.  It is his painting-firestarting-blindhanging-generalaroundthehouseworking-outfit. Expect to see it again in the future.

Of Badges and Glass Eyes

B has a second job. Actually it is probably like a third or fourth job. He has worked numerous jobs since I met him.  I used to do that too. When I was young and did not fall asleep on the couch at 7:30 p.m.   B must still have some of that youth in him.

Anyway, his second (or third) job is as guest relations at a sports arena.  He works hockey games and concerts.  Even though every time he works he comes home grumbling about it, I know he secretly likes it. After all, he has been there for about three years now.   I like when he comes home telling tales of what occurred.  Some of them are just too damn funny.

So the other night when we were out to eat, and B began telling me what had happened at the latest concert (a big band from the 80s that is still going strong today), I knew it would be good. I was not disappointed.   B first started telling me about some cops that wanted special treatment. What they wanted was to get to the main floor, without the proper ticket.  It didn't help their cause, in B's eyes, that they were cops right near our city.  B tells me their exchange went something like this:

Cop: I am a police officer with [city], can't you just let me down to the main floor? [flashing badge]

B:  Are you one of those cops that just sit by the exit to the freeway and nails everyone that comes by?

Cop: Oh no! Not me.  I don't do that.  Please just give me a wristband.

B:  Oh, I see. So your badge entitles you to a wristband?  If you pull me over while driving through [city] and I am wearing a wristband, will that get me out of a ticket?

I like that boy's logic.  B baffled the cop into silence but then took pity on him and let him go down.  Actually, that part of the story was hard to believe considering B does not have a good track record with the police in our area.  You see, before the new car, B had a different car that was totaled on the freeway when some jerk decided he needed to exit RIGHT THEN and cut across all lanes of traffic, into B, and sending B into the side wall.  When Mr. Police Officer arrived on the scene, there were nothing but skid marks.  Jerk left B for dead on the side of the road.  B told Mr. Police Officer his story, only to not be believed.  For some reason, Mr. Police Officer thought that B was lying and had careened himself into the side of the road.  As they sat in the police car arguing (yes B is obviously not intimidated by authority figures), Mr. Police Officer's radio went off saying "we have a call from a driver who witnessed some jerk plow into a guy on the freeway and take off. The person followed the driver home and has identified him."  I believe B's exact words to Mr. Police Officer were "huh. I guess I didn't careen myself into the wall after all."  B's my hero.

Anyway, I was nodding during this story about his job, thinking it was great and wondering if it was worth a blog when B said the following gem:  "Then there was the guy who lost his glass eye."

STOP

I actually said "STOP," reached into my purse and pulled out the notebook where I write such gems to blog about later.  Then I proceeded to say, "Continue..."

B: Yeah, some guy lost his glass eye.

Me: His real glass eye?

B: Yeah, I am really not sure how you do that. We were looking all over the ground. I actually think his girlfriend did it.  I saw them fighting earlier and I think she hit him.

Me: She hit his glass eye out?

B: That's the only thing I can think of.  I wonder if someone will turn it into the lost and found.

Um, WOW. That is all I can say.  The rest of the time I just laugh in my head at the spectacle I imagine occurred.  And I thought losing a contact was bad.

On another note, B told me he was employee of the month this month at the job.  Totally well deserved, especially since he didn't need a sock puppet.

Kudos to you B! You rock!

Renovate! Take a Walk With Me (The Finale)

We have floors! Glorious, beautiful, wonderful hardwood floors. See for yourself:

The cats checking out the new floors and new pad. To say they were freaked out would be an understatement. More on that later though:

In addition to the floors, the first floor TV room also got a paint job:

This is where B will spend most of his time as that is where the big screen TV will go. This room was one of the first ones almost "finished" so there will be more pictures soon:

We are really happy with the floors. Of course there was trouble along the way such as the floors were not completely dry when we first moved in resulting in half of our furniture sitting in the garage and other things being piled up in non-floor-being-redone-rooms like this:

That would be our kitchen, even though it looks like a storage unit. We operated this way for a couple of days so that the floors could dry and so that the floor guy could (a) come back and redo the dining room which didn't match and (b) redo the entire first floor edges which were not to our satisfaction.  This caused us to live mostly out of the storage kitchen and the upstairs bedrooms for a week.  Part disaster and part adventure.

Meanwhile, in the midst of this all, we changed which room was going to be our bedroom, my office, B's office, and the spare room numerous times before inadvertently falling into the rooms we landed.  So, do you think you can guess which of the four ended up being:

1. Our bedroom

2. My office

3. B's office

4. Spare room

from the following rooms:

Back blue room:

Green room (used as master bedroom by former owners):

Crazy drape room (not to mention the former carpet):

The bright blue starry room:

Note: If you are related to me and/or know what we chose, please do not ruin the guessing for others. You know who you are!

Coming soon to a blog near you - The TV room, B's workshop, our first fire, and much more....

Stay tuned.